ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841 - 1901)

COLLECTIONS (9)

The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan.

(London: Chatto & Windus, 1884.)

ROBERT BUCHANAN’S

POEMS

EARLY POEMS.

Pastoral Pictures:

The second edition of Idyls and Legends of Inverburn, published in 1866, contained a similar sequence under the same title, with the following poems: ‘The River’, ‘In The Mountains’ and ‘Snow’. This is the revised sequence from the 1874 Poetical Works and is available in the Idyls and Legends of Inverburn section.

‘I. Down The River’ - originally published in All The Year Round (15 September, 1860), included in the second edition of Idyls and Legends of Inverburn (1866) in the Juvenilia section as the first poem, ‘The River’, in the ‘Pastoral Pictures’ sequence.

‘II. The Summer Pool’ - originally published in All The Year Round (28 August, 1869).

‘III. Up The River’ - originally published in The St. James’s Magazine (October, 1862). Revised and retitled, this was included in the second edition of Idyls and Legends of Inverburn (1866) in the Juvenilia section as the second poem, ‘In The Mountains’, in the ‘Pastoral Pictures’ sequence.

‘IV. Snow’ - originally published in All The Year Round (29 December, 1860), included in the second edition of Idyls and Legends of Inverburn (1866) in the Juvenilia section as the third poem in the ‘Pastoral Pictures’ sequence.

‘To The Luggie’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867, where it was entitled ‘The Brook’. It appeared under this title in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘Fra Giacomo’ - originally published in Temple Bar (February, 1866) and included in Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘Charmian’ - originally published in The Broadway (August, 1867), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘Cloudland’ - originally published in The St. James’s Magazine (July, 1863) under the title, ‘John Keats in Cloudland’and included in Idyls and Legends of Inverburn, (2nd. edition, 1866).

‘Cuckoo Song’ - originally published in The Argosy (July, 1866) and included in Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘The White Deer’- originally published in Cassell’s Magazine (July, 1874) and included in Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘Convent-Robbing’ - originally published in The Argosy (November, 1866) under the pseudonym, ‘Walter Hutcheson’ and included in Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882). ‘Convent-Robbing’ is a complete reworking of the story of ‘Cloister Robbing’ which appeared in Ballad Stories of the Affections: From the Scandinavian (1866).

‘The Ballad of the Wayfarer’ - originally published in The Saint Pauls Magazine (September, 1872) under the pseudonym, ‘T. M.’ and included in Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘In Spring-Time’ - from Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘The Fisherman’ - from Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘The Churchyard’ - from Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘Sea-Wash’ - originally published in Wayside Posies, a collection of anonymous poems, edited by Robert Buchanan, engraved by the Brothers Dalziel and published by G. Routledge in 1866, under the title, ‘On The Shore’. It was included in the 1874 Poetical Works and Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘Earth And The Soul’ - originally published in Cassell’s Magazine (August, 1874) and included in Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘A Curl’ - originally published in Temple Bar (March, 1862) and included in Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

‘Love And Time’ - from Ballads of Life, Love and Humour (1882).

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UNDERTONES.
(1864.)

‘Poet’s Prologue—To David In Heaven’

The Undertones:

‘1. Proteus: or, A Prelude’

‘2. Ades, King Of Hell’

‘3. Pan’

‘4. The Naiad’

‘5. The Satyr’

‘6. Venus On The Sun-Car’

‘7. Selene The Moon’

‘8. Iris The Rainbow’

‘9. Orpheus The Musician’

‘10. Polypheme’s Passion’

‘11. Penelope’

‘12. Sappho: On The Leucadian Rock’

‘13. The Syren’

‘14. A Voice From Academe’

‘15. Pygmalion The Sculptor’

‘16. Antony In Arms’

‘17. Fine Weather On The Digentia’

‘18. Fine Weather By Baiae’

‘19. The Swan-Song Of Apollo’

‘Poet’s Epilogue—To Mary On Earth’

This is essentially the Second Edition of Undertones, published by Alexander Strahan in 1865, rather than the earlier Moxon edition of 1863.

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IDYLS AND LEGENDS OF INVERBURN.
(1865.)

Fly to the city, Spirit of the Spring,
Breathe softly on the eyes of those who read,
And make a gentle picture of the scene
Wherein these men and women come and go:
The clachan with its humming sound of looms,
The quaint old gables, roofs of turf and thatch,
The glimmering spire that peeps above the firs,
The stream whose soft blue arms encircle all,—
And in the background heathery norland hills,
Hued like the azure of the dew-berrie,
And mingling with the regions of the rain!

‘The Lowland Village’ - The introductory ‘Preamble’ of the original version of Idyls and Legends of Inverburn (1865) was omitted from the Second Edition (1866) and replaced by the above verse. ‘The Lowland Village’ appeared in the Selected Poems (1882) and is a reworking of two verses of the original ‘Preamble’.

THE LOWLAND VILLAGE.

SEVEN pleasant miles by wood, and stream, and moor,
Seven miles along the country road that wound
Uphill and downhill in a dusty line,
Then from the forehead of a hill, behold— 
Lying below me, sparkling ruby-like—
The village!—quaint old gables, roofs of thatch,
A glimmering spire that peep’d above the firs,
The sunset lingering orange-red on all,
And nearer, tumbling thro’ a mossy bridge,
The river that I knew! No wondrous peep
Into the faëry land of Oberon,
Its bowers, its glowworm-lighted colonnades
Where pigmy lovers wander two by two,
Could weigh upon the city wanderer’s heart
With peace so pure as this! Why, yonder stood,
A fledgeling’s downward flight beyond the spire,
The gray old manse, endear’d by memories
Of Jean the daughter of the minister;
And in the cottage with the painted sign,
Hard by the bridge, how many a winter night
Had I with politicians sapient-eyed
Discuss’d the county paper’s latest news
And read of toppling thrones!—And nought seem’d changed!
The very gig before the smithy door,
The barefoot maiden with the milking pail 
Pausing and looking backward from the bridge,
The last rook wavering homeward to the wood,
All seem’d a sunset-picture, every tint
Unchanged, since I had bidden it farewell.
My heart grew garrulous of olden times
And my face sadden’d, as I saunter’d down.
Then came a rural music on my ears,—
The waggons in the lanes, the waterfall
With cool sound plunging in its wood-nest wild,
The rooks amid the windy rookery,
The shouts of children, and more far away
The crowing of a cock. Then o’er the bridge
I bent, above the river gushing down
Thro’ mossy boulders, making underneath
Green-shaded pools where now and then a trout
Sank in the ripple of its own quick leap;
And like some olden and familiar tune,
Half humm’d aloud, half tinkling in the brain,
Troublously, faintly, came the buzz of looms.
     And here I linger’d, nested in the shade
Of Peace that makes a music as she grows;
And when the vale had put its glory on
The bitter aspiration was subdued,
And Pleasure, tho’ she wore a woodland crown,
Look’d at me with Ambition’s serious eyes.
Amid the deep green woods of pine, whose boughs
Made a sea-music overhead, and caught
White flakes of sunlight on their highest leaves,
I foster’d solemn meditations;
Stretch’d on the sloping river banks, fresh strewn
With speedwell, primrose, and anemone,
I watch’d the bright king-fisher dart about,
His quick small shadow with an azure gleam
Startling the minnows in the pool beneath;
Or later on the moors, where far away
Across the waste the sportsman with his gun
Stood a dark speck across the azure, while
The heath-hen tower’d with beating wings and fell,
I caught the solemn wind that wander’d down
With thunder-echoes heaved among the hills.
Nor lack’d I, in the balmy summer nights,
Or on the days of rain, such counterpoise
As books can give. The honey-languaged Greek
Who gently piped the sweet bucolic lay,
The wit who raved of Lesbia’s loosen’d zone
And loved divinely what was less than earth,
Were with me; others, of a later date:
The eagle-eyed comedian divine;
The English Homer, not the humpback’d one
Who sung Belinda’s curl at Twickenham,
But Chapman, master of the long strong line;
Moreover, those few singers who have lit
The beacon-lights of these our latter days—
Chief, young Hyperion, who setting soon
Sent his pale look along the future time,
And the tall figure on the hills, that stoopt
To see the daisy’s shadow on the grass.

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‘Willie Baird’

‘Lord Ronald’s Wife’

‘Poet Andrew’

‘White Lily Of Weardale-Head’

‘The English Huswife’s Gossip’

‘The Faëry Foster-Mother’

‘The Green Gnome’

‘Hugh Sutherland’s Pansies’

‘The Dead Mother’ - originally published in Idyls and Legends of Inverburn as ‘The Legend of the Stepmother’. This title was changed to ‘The Dead Mother’ in all subsequent publications of the poem.

‘The Widow Mysie (an Idyl of Love and Whisky)’

‘The Minister And The Elfin’

Village Voices:

     ‘1. January Wind’

     ‘2. April Rain’

     ‘3. Summer Moon’

     ‘4. December Snow’

This version of Idyls and Legends of Inverburn omits two poems from the original edition, ‘The Two Babes’ and ‘The Legend of the Little Fay’, which were also omitted from the Second Edition. These poems do not appear elsewhere in the 1884 Poetical Works, unlike the additional poems in that Second Edition, ‘Cloudland’ and ‘Pastoral Pictures’, which are included in the ‘Early Poems’ section.

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LONDON POEMS.
(1866-70)

‘Bexhill,1866’

‘The Little Milliner; or, Love In An Attic’

‘Liz’

‘The Starling’

‘Jane Lewson’

‘Langley Lane (a Love Poem)’

‘Edward Crowhurst; or, A New Poet’

‘Artist And Model (a Love Poem)’

‘Nell’

‘Attorney Sneak’

‘Barbara Gray’

‘The Blind Linnet’ - original title, ‘The Linnet’.

‘‘Tiger Bay’ (a Stormy Night’s Dream)’
     ‘1. The Tigress’
     ‘2. ‘Ratcliffe Meg’’
     ‘3. Intercession’ -  originally published in Good Words (July, 1871), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The City Asleep’ - originally published in London Society (March, 1869), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘Up In An Attic’ - originally published in The Argosy (October, 1866), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘To The Moon’ - originally published in London Society (February, 1868), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘Spring Song In The City’ - originally published in London Society (May, 1868), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘In London, March 1866’ - originally published in The Argosy (April, 1866), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘A Lark’s Flight’ - originally published in The Spectator (August, 1868), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘De Berny’ - from the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The Wake Of Tim O’Hara’ - originally published in All The Year Round (July, 1869), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘Kitty Kemble’ - there is a letter from Buchanan to Alexander Strahan of 1st February, 1873, enclosing a copy of ‘Kitty Kemble’ for publication in The Saint Paul’s Magazine. For some reason it did not appear in the magazine and its first publication seems to be in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The Swallows’ - originally appeared in Wayside Posies, a collection of anonymous poems, edited by Robert Buchanan, engraved by the Brothers Dalziel and published by G. Routledge in 1866. ’The Swallows’ was reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works and Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour (1882).

‘Tom Dunstan, Or, The Politician’ - from the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘O’Murtogh’ - from the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The Bookworm’ - originally published in All The Year Round (October, 1871), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The Last Of The Hangmen’ - originally published in The Saint Pauls Magazine (January, 1872), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘London, 1864’ - from London Poems, 1866. The poem was revised for the 1874 Poetical Works, and this version of ‘London, 1864’ was then included 1884 edition of the Poetical Works.

‘The Modern Warrior’ - from the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘Pan: Epilogue’ - originally published, as ‘Pan’, in The Saint Pauls Magazine (June, 1872). ‘Pan: Epilogue’ was reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘L’Envoi To London Poems’- This appeared in the 1874 Poetical Works as ‘L’Envoi To Vol. I’.

This version of London Poems includes the original 13 poems, plus 18 others with London ‘connections’, most of which had been published in magazines and then reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works. The original London Poems also included a Miscellaneous section with four other poems. In the 1884 Poetical Works two of these appear in the next section, the other two in the ‘North Coast’ section.

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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
(1866-70.)

‘The Death Of Roland’ - from London Poems, 1866.

‘The Gift Of Eos’ - from London Poems, 1866.

‘Clari In The Well’ - originally published in Good Words (August, 1871), reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘Serenades’ - from Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour, 1882.

‘In The Garden’ - from Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour, 1882. ‘In The Garden’ is a revised version of ‘Erôs Athanatos’ which was originally published in The Gentleman’s Magazine (May, 1874). The original version is available here.

‘The Asrai (Prologue to the Changeling)’ - originally published in The Saint Pauls Magazine (April, 1872), reprinted in Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour, 1882.

‘The Changeling (a Legend of the Moonlight):
     1. The Asrai
     2. The Changeling’s Birth
     3. His Mortal Life
     4. His Sorrow and Sin
     5. The Battle-Field
     6. The Abbot Paul’ - originally published in the extra Christmas number of The Gentleman’s Magazine (December, 1875), reprinted in Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour, 1882.

‘To Clari (with the Preceding Poem)’ - from Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour, 1882.

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NORTH COAST, AND
OTHER POEMS.
(1867-68.)

‘Meg Blane:
     1. Storm
     2. Dead Calm
     3. A Troubled Deep
     4. ‘And the Spirit of God moved upon the Waters’’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867. A revised version (which added the titles of the four parts) was published in the 1874 Poetical Works, and this version was then reprinted in the 1884 Poetical Works.

‘The Battle Of Drumliemoor (Covenant Period)’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867, revised for the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The Northern Wooing’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867, revised for the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘An English Eclogue’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867, revised for the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘A Scottish Eclogue’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867, revised for the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The Scaith O’ Bartle’ - from London Poems, 1866, revised for the 1874 Poetical Works.

‘The Glamour’ - from London Poems, 1866.

‘Sigurd Of Saxony (Mediæval)’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867.

‘A Poem To David’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867.

‘Hakon’ - from North Coast and Other Poems, 1867.

Several poems from the original North Coast and Other Poems are omitted in this version: ‘The Exiles of Oona’, ‘The Saint’s Story’, ‘The Northern Muse’, ‘The Ballad-Maker’ and ‘The Ballad of the Stork’. ‘A Prelude’ and ‘Celtic Mystics’ were subsequently reworked for inclusion in The Book of Orm. And ‘The Brook’ appears as ‘To the Luggie’ in the Early Poems section.

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SONNETS

WRITTEN BY LOCH CORUISK,
ISLE OF SKYE.
(1870.)

‘Coruisken Sonnets - from The Book of Orm, 1870, reprinted in the 1874 Poetical Works.

     1. Lord, Is It Thou?

     2. We Are Fatherless

     3. We are Children  

     4. When we are all Asleep    

     5. But the Hills will bear Witness  

     6. Desolate!  

     7. Lord, art Thou here?    

     8. God is beautiful  

     9. The Motion of the Mists  

     10. Coruisk  

     11. But whither?  

     12.God is pitiless  

     13. Yea, pitiless  

     14. Could God be judged?  

     15. The Hills on their Thrones  

     16. King Blaabhein  

     17. Blaabhein in the Mists  

     18. The Fiery Birth of the Hills  

     19. The Changeless Hills    

     20. O Mountain Peak of a God

     21. God the Image

     22. The Footprints  

     23. We are Deathless  

     24. A Voice in the Whirlwind  

     25. Cry of the little Brook  

     26. The Happy Hearts of Earth  

     27. Father, forgive Thy Child  

     28. God’s Loneliness

     29. The Cup of Tears

     30. The Light of the World  

     31. Earth’s Eldest Born  

     32. What Spirit cometh?  

     33. Stay, O Spirit!

     34. Quiet Waters’

The ‘Coruisken Sonnets’ originally appeared as Section VII of The Book of Orm (1870). In the 1874 Poetical Works, they were separated from a revised version of The Book of Orm, and this arrangement was then replicated in the 1884 Poetical Works.

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THE BOOK OF ORM.
(1870.)

The Book of Orm.

(1870.)

     ‘This also we humbly beg,—that Human things may not prejudice such as
are Divine, neither that from the unlocking of the Gates of Sense, and the
kindling of a greater Natural Light, anything of incredulity or intellectual
night may arise in our minds towards DIVINE MYSTERIES.’—STUDENT’S PRAYER, BACON.

     ‘To vindicate the ways of God to man.’—MILTON.

     ‘God’s Mystery will I vindicate, the Mystery of the Veil and of the Shadow;
yea, also Death and Sorrow, God’s divine Angels on all earths; and I will
vindicate the Soul, that the Soul may vindicate the Flesh; and all these things
shall vindicate Evil, proving God’s mercy to His creatures, great and small.’—A RUNE FOUND IN THE STARLIGHT.

INSCRIPTION.

To F. W. C.

FLOWERS pluckt upon a grave by moonlight, pale
And suffering, from the spiritual light
They grew in: these, with all the love and blessing
That prayers can gain of God, I send to thee!

PROEM.

(TO BOOK OF ORM AND
POLITICAL MYSTICS.)

WHEN in these songs I name the Name of God,
I mean not Him who ruled with brazen rod
The rulers of the Jew; nor Him who calm
Sat reigning on Olympus; nay, nor Brahm,
Osiris, Allah, Odin, Balder, Thor,
(Tho’ these I honour, with a hundred more);
Menu I mean not, nor the Man Divine,
The pallid Rainbow lighting Palestine;
Nor any lesser of the gods which Man
Hath conjured out of Night since Time began.
I mean the primal Mystery and Light,
The most Unfathomable, Infinite,
The Higher Law, Impersonal, Supreme,
The Life in Life, the Dream within the Dream,
The Fountain which in silent melody
Feeds the dumb waters of Eternity,
The Source whence every god hath flown and flows,
And whither each departs to find repose.

‘The Book Of The Visions Seen By Orm The Celt

1. First Song Of The Veil:

     1. The Veil Woven

     2. Earth the Mother

     3. Children of Earth  

     4. The Wise Men

2. The Man And The Shadow:

     1. The Shadow  

     2. The Rainbow

3. Songs Of Corruption:

     1. Phantasy  

     2. The Dream of the World without Death  

     3. Soul and Flesh

4. The Soul And The Dwelling

5. Songs Of Seeking

     1.

     2. Quest  

     3. The Happy Earth

     4. O unseen One!

     5. World’s Mystery

     6. The Cities  

     7. The Priests

     8. The Lamb of God

     9. Doom

     10. God’s Dream  

     11. Flower of the World  

     12. O Spirit!

6. The Lifting Of The Veil

     1. Orm’s Vision

     2. The Face and the World  

     3. Orm’s Awakening  

7. The Devil’s Mystics

     1. The Inscription without  

     2. The Tree of Life

     3. The Seeds  

     4. Fire and Water; or, A Voice of the Flesh

     5. Sanitas  

     6. The Philosophers  

     7. The Devil’s Prayer - the original title is ‘Prayer from the Deeps’.

     8. Homunculus; or, The Song of Deicides  

     9. Roses  

     10. Hermaphroditus

     11. After  

     12. His Prayer  

8. The Vision Of The Man Accurst

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The 1874 reworking of The Book of Orm is succeeded by versions of Napoleon Fallen and The Drama of Kings (both 1871) which also appeared in the 1874 Poetical Works, although their positions here are reversed, ‘Political Mystics’ had appeared in Volume 3, and ‘Songs of the Terrible Year’ in Volume 2. The variations from the original versions are detailed in the section concerning the 1874 Poetical Works (‘Songs of the Terrible Year’, ‘Political Mystics’) as well as in the transcriptions of Napoleon Fallen and The Drama of Kings.

POLITICAL MYSTICS.
(1871.)

‘Titan And Avatar (a Choral Mystic):

     1. Ode Of Nations - Chorus (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 47-54).

     2. The Avatar’s Dream - Buonaparte’s soliloquy (The Drama Of Kings, pp.110-128).

     3. The Elemental Quest - Chorus (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 128-136).

     4. The Elemental Doom’ - Choric Interlude: The Titan (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 137-156).

‘The Fool Of Destiny’ - Napoleon Fallen, 1871. Revision in The Drama of Kings,  ‘Napoleon Fallen’ (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 157 - 260).

‘The Teuton Monologue (1870)’ - a combination of the two speeches by The Royal Chancellor (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 301-306, 308-315).

‘The Reply’ - Chorus (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 315-321).

‘The City of Man’ - originally appeared as ‘The Final Chorus, or Epode’ of Napoleon Fallen. In The Drama of Kings it was revised and moved to the end of the poem where it appeared as the ‘Epode’ (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 443-437).

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SONGS OF THE TERRIBLE YEAR.
(1870.)

     *** These ‘Songs,’ inasmuch as they formed a portion of the ‘Drama of Kings,’ preceded by a long period the publication of Victor Hugo’s series under the same admirable title. The ‘Drama of Kings’ was written under a false conception, which no one discarded sooner than the author; but portions of it are preserved in the present collection, because, although written during the same feverish and evanescent excitement, they are the distinct lyrical products of the author’s mind, and perfectly complete in themselves.
                                                                                                                                   —R. B.

‘Ode To The Spirit Of Auguste Comte (1871)’ - Dedication (The Drama Of Kings, pp. vii-xiii).

‘A Dirge For Kings’ - In the version of Napoleon Fallen in The Drama of Kings, Buchanan replaced the opening scene with the German Citizens with this Chorus. In the subsequent version, ‘The Fool of Destiny’, the first scene was reinstated and this chorus was omitted.

‘The Perfect State’ - Choric Epode (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 271-276).

‘The Two Voices (January 1871)’ - from Choric Interlude: The Two Voices (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 265-269).

‘Ode Before Paris (December 1870)’ - Chorus (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 281-284).

‘A Dialogue In The Snow (before Paris, December 1870)’ - from the dialogue between Chorus and A Deserter (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 321-332).

‘The Prayer In The Night’ - Chorus (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 333-338).

‘The Spirit Of France’ - Chorus (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 380-382)

‘The Apotheosis Of The Sword (Versailles, 1871)’ - from the Scene inside the Hall of Mirrors (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 394-403).

‘The Chaunt By The Rhine (1871)’ - from the same Scene, the dialogue between the Chorus and The Chiefs (The Drama Of Kings, pp. 407-417).

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The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan (1884) - continued

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